Nearly a riot at the local Wal Mart,,,

Went by my local Wal Mart on Sunday...

... I was surprised that their ammo case was well stocked. I saw boxes of .223 Remington ready for sell. 20 rounds of PMC brand for $21.95! :eek:

So, today I went by my LGS and they had a very good stock of PMC .223 Remington 20 round boxes for $8.95 each. So I bought 3. :D
 
I don't really think it's the hoarders as much as the flippers.

I went to a gunshow in mid November, and bricks of .22 were actually selling out at $75. Amazing.

I have half a brick set left over still, but I'm afraid to shoot it since I don't know when I'll be able to replenish it economically. At $.15 a round, I might as well pick up that AK74 I've been thinking about and shoot that instead. Easier to get ammo for.
 
I was getting a bit worried at the start of the scare until I uncovered the stash of 1500 rounds I had forgotten about. That was on top of the 1500 rounds I knew I had. It was like Christmas. :)

I am also glad for good relationships with LGS employees. Our local Farm/Ranch store moved to a bigger building recently and had a Grand Opening in September. They have a great gun section and I've gotten to know the guys behind the counter pretty well, one of whom I sold a couple boxes of 22WMR to at cost so his wife could shoot her new LCR. Long story longer, the guys told me to be there at 8 am for the Door Buster on the big day AT the gun counter. I show up to see a BIG line and employees handing numbers out. I bypassed that and made my way back and caught the eye of one of the guys that was busier than a one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. He waved me down to the end of the counter and produced a Remington "Bucket 'O Bullets"(1400 rounds for 55 bucks!), handed it to me with a low whispered "Turn around and head straight for the front registers." I could feel the heat from the glares of the guys in line as I walked away. :D
 
I own two .22 rifles and haven't fired either of them because I can't find ammo. A very good friend of mine works in the sporting goods dept. at Wal-Mart and is going to purchase a brick for me when the next shipment comes in. He told me that people offer him money if he would call them when the .22s arrive. I've know he worked in that dept. for the past 3 years but didn't want to go about it this way. But now I figure, what the heck. Others do it.
 
Black market. How so? I give him the money, he buys me a box of 250 and gives them to me :confused: An example of black marketing is ammosportsnmore.com who buys them for $11 for 225 like I did and re-sales them for $95-$105 for a brick of 500.
 
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An example of black marketing is ammosportsnmore.com who buys them for $11 for 225 like I did and re-sales them for $95-$105 for a brick of 500.
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What ammosportsnmore.com is doing is not 'black market' either. There is nothing illegal about what they are doing.

What they are doing whether we like it or not is perfectly legal and if they were selling the same 225rds for $1000 and people were stupid enough to pay the price...well...that's what free enterprise is about isn't it?

Bottom line is until we, the consumer, start letting the stuff set on the shelf, we, the consumer are the only ones guilty of extending this shortage/price gouging business.

Want to blame someone???
If you're out buying the stuff and paying the exorbitant prices for it...look in the mirror.
 
.22 ammo

Pick up 10 boxes at the local Dicks Sporting Goods for $2.48 a box...it was American Eagle ammo to shoot out of my sons new Henry lever action i bought him for christmas...but they had plenty of it
 
shortwave: Bottom line is until we, the consumer, start letting the stuff set on the shelf, we, the consumer are the only ones guilty of extending this shortage/price gouging business.

Want to blame someone???
If you're out buying the stuff and paying the exorbitant prices for it...look in the mirror.
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I couldn't possibly agree more.
 
At least you saw some .22 at Walmart.
The clerk at my local Walmart told me that every day for about a year now the same group of guys show up early every single day and buy up any and all .22 they can get their hands on.

Most all of it is listed on Armslist by one guy. At the wonderful price of $75 for a 525rnd value pack of .22!

The new requirement in CT that says you have to have a permit to buy ammo has slowed down the hoarders as they can no longer have their wives/family each buy 3 boxes as well.

Walmarts here in CT have TONS of shotgun ammo though. They have literally filled the entire ammo cases in some stores with 12ga just so it looks like they have ammo in stock and not a constantly empty case. Last time I went in looking for some 9mm target ammo I found 2 boxes of it hidden behind a stack of 12ga. When I pointed it out to the manager who came to unlock the case he was rather mad that I spotted it. Pretty sure he was hiding it for a friend or so that he could buy it once his shift was over. Too bad for him. I bought both boxes.
 
@ shortwave. You missed my point but thats ok. Your opinion and I respect it. Sometimes the opinion/thought I form in my head doesn't make it down through my fingers to the key board :-) The box of .22s my friend and Wal-Mart employee purchased and sold to me at cost is the first box of .22 ammo I've had in quite some time. Glad to know someone who can get it for me at a more than reasonable price. He has been working in their sporting goods dept. for about 5 years and we see each other/talk sports and hunting at least twice a week. Don't know why I didn't think of him before.
 
Haven't seen 22 LR at Wally World since the panic began. Food and water is more important. Can you imagine how these people will conduct themselves when the dollar dies?
 
My local Wally World stays open 24/7 and I work the overnight shift. On my days off, I will drop in around 2 or 3 in the A.M. and look for ammo, just as they are putting it onto the shelves. I've been able to pick up a box here and there of Remington Golden .22 (My ruger MK3 loves it) or some 9mm ammo. Besides, you meet the most interesting people at 3 in the morning wandering around. :eek:
Let's hope people stop paying scalpers prices and things will more or less go back to normal; or as normal as can be expected in these crazy times.
 
I have enough 22lr I haven't even really looked for it since the panic started. I'm more concerned with food and water, like some others, I feel that the future does not look very bright at all. Being able to feed me and mine and defend against the worst possible scenarios for an extended period of time are the current priorities. I consider the 22lr a small game round.
 
here in Kanuk-istan, 22LR is plentiful. Hardly ever a problem getting CCI stuff expecially. Not uncommon to see 5000 rounds or more of CCI unsold sitting on the shelf at the local gun store.
 
I know this will never happen but if all of us would just stop buying .22lr for just one month, everything would settle down and there would be plenty for everyone. These clowns who are selling bricks for $75 would be stuck and sooner or later would have to reduce prices.
 
These clowns who are selling bricks for $75 would be stuck and sooner or later would have to reduce prices
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And the even bigger clowns that bought these $75 bricks will feel real stupid when the price is back to $20 a brick. :D
 
Had some time to kill while in our Wally World yesterday. Had a chance to talk to an interesting , more senior gentleman that was working in the sporting goods dept. He's been an avid shooter all his life, has met(knows) many of the smaller LGS owners/personnel that have been in business any time at all.

We got talking about the .22 shortage issue. He had the same line of thought that until people start letting the .22's set on the shelves, the shortage problems will not stop. I asked him how these guys are coming in and buying up the .22 ammo as soon as it hits the shelves? How do they know a shipment arrives? Or do they just come in everyday hoping some came in.

He told me they do not have to physically come in the store everyday and check to see if a shipment arrives. These guys use their home computers by logging into the Walmart website and programming their computers to sound an alarm when .22's change from 'out of stock' to 'in stock'. And they will have several Walmart locations programmed to alert them when the .22's show up.

He explained the process of how when a truckload of merchandise is being offloaded and being received at the dock, when it is scanned as received the in store stock numbers automatically change and is also changed on Walmarts website. He explained that these guys home computers alarms them and they(along with all their buddies) beat feet to the Wally World and request the .22's before they are even brought out to the shelves. The employees then goes to the dock/storage area and gets the ammo for them.

He said this has been goin on every since the shortage started not only at Walmart but other chain stores such as Meijer, etc. that have websites.

Soooo...the next time you are desperate enough to go out and pay $50-$75 for a brick of .22's, just remember the vendor you are paying that stupid price to, probably bought them for about $23/ brick.

Can you say "more lucrative then the dope business" :D

Simply amazing.
 
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Actually I just use the app on my phone, haven't paid anything but normal prices for 22 all year and have plenty of reserve behind what we shoot thanks to the Walmart app.
 
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